Saturday, August 3, 2013

Algerian War of Independence

The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian War of Independence
or the Algerian Revolution was a war between France and the Algerian freedom fighters decolonization war, it was a
complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis
fighting, terrorism, the use of
torture by both sides, and counter-terrorism operations. The conflict
was also a civil war between
loyalist Algerians who believed in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist
Algerian Muslim counterparts. Effectively started
by members of the National Liberation Front
(FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge ("Red All Saints' Day"),
the conflict shook the foundations of the French Fourth Republic (1946–58) and led
to its eventual collapse.from 1954 to 1962,
which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France.
The war involved a large number of rival movements which fought against each
other at different moments, such as on the independence side, when the National Liberation Front
(FLN) fought viciously against the Algerian National Movement (MNA) in
Algeria and in the Café
Wars on the French mainland; on the pro-French side, during its final
months, when the conflict evolved into a civil war between pro-French hardliners
in Algeria and supporters of General Charles de Gaulle. The French Army split
during two attempted coups, while the right-wing Organisation de l'armée
secrète (OAS) fought against both the FLN and the French government's forces.
Because of the instability in France, the French Fourth Republic was
dissolved. Charles
de Gaulle returned to power during the May 1958 crisis and subsequently founded the Fifth
Republic with his Gaullist followers. De Gaulle's return to power was
supposed to ensure Algeria's continued occupation and integration with the French Community,
which had replaced the French
Union and brought together France's colonies. However, de Gaulle
progressively shifted in favor of Algerian independence, purportedly seeing it
as inevitable. De Gaulle organized a vote for the Algerian people. The Algerians
chose independence, and France engaged in negotiations with the FLN, leading to
the March 1962 Evian Accords, which resulted in the independence
of Algeria.

After the failed April 1961 Algiers putsch, organized by generals hostile to
the negotiations headed by Michel Debré's Gaullist government, the OAS
(Organisation de l'armée secrète), which grouped various opponents of
Algerian independence, initiated a campaign of bombings. It also initiated
peaceful strikes and demonstrations in Algeria in order to block the
implementation of the Evian Accords and the exile of the pieds-noirs (Algerians of European origin). Ahmed Ben Bella, who
had been arrested in 1956 along with other FLN leaders, became the first President of
Algeria.